Vikram Rao is the executive director of RTEC, and assumed this position on September 1, 2008. Rao spent 9 years with Halliburton and another 25 with predecessor companies. Most recently he served as senior vice president and chief technology officer, responsible for Halliburton’s technology effort as well as intellectual asset management. He joined a predecessor company in 1974 as a senior research engineer.

Rao is the author of more than 40 publications and has been awarded 42 United States patents and foreign analogs in fields that include non-ferrous metal refining, alloy formulations, and oil and gas technology. RTI Press released his book Shale Gas: the Promise and the Peril in July 2012, as well as a revised and expanded second edition in 2015. His most recent book Sustainable Shale Oil and Gas: Analytical Chemistry, Geochemistry and Biochemistry Methods, was released by Elsevier Press in October, 2016. Rao earned a doctorate degree and a master’s in engineering from Stanford University, and holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, in Chennai India.